Heltgton 

in  tte 

llome 


Interchureh  World  Movement 
of  North  America 

45  West  18th  Street,  New  Yobk  City 


Religion  in  the  Home 


By 

WALTER  W.  MOORE 


INTERCHURCH  WORLD  MOVEMENT 
OF  NORTH  AMERICA 
45  West  18th  Street,  New  York  City 


Price,  5 cents  each;  50  cents 
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jl^elision  in  tfie  ^mt 


Deut.  6:6-7.  “And  these  words  which  I 
command  thee  this  day  shall  be  in  thine  heart ; 
and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 
children.” 

The  Greatness  of  Moses 

Moses,  the  Hebrew  law-giver,  was  perhaps 
the  greatest  mere  man  that  ever  lived.  His  in- 
fluence has  probably  been  stronger,  more  far- 
reaching  and  more  beneficent  than  that  of  any 
other  teacher  and  organizer  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  except  alone  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
The  teachings  of  Moses  have  largely  deter- 
mined the  hi,story  and  influence  of  three  of  the 
great  religions  of  mankind — Judaism,  Moham- 
medanism, and  Christianity.  He  was  a many- 
sided  man.  He  was  pre-eminent  both  as  a 
man  of  thought  and  a man  of  action.  In  the 
realm  of  letters  he  excelled  alike  as  a writer 
of  prose  and  a writer  of  poetry,  as  shown  in 
the  matchless  narratives  of  Genesis,  the  ring- 
ing paean  of  deliverance  at  the  Eed  Sea,  and 
that  lofty  and  melancholy  hymn,  the  ninetieth 
Psalm,  the  power  of  which  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  it  has  been  made  a part  of  every  funeral 
service  in  Christendom — so  that  these  death- 
less words  about  death  are  still  read  every 
day  over  the  mortal  remains  of  many  thou- 
sands of  our  fellowmen.  And  when  your  time 
comes  and  mine,  the  minister  who  officiates 


3 


will  pronounce  over  our  lifeless  clay  the 
threnody  that  Moses  wrote  three  thousand 
years  ago.  In  view  of  what  the  Bible  tells  us 
about  his  temperament  and  his  defects  as  a 
speaker,  it  would  hardly  be  expected  that 
Moses  should  excel  in  the  oratorical  style. 
Yet,  Professor  Moulton,  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  who  has  made  the  literary  forms  of 
Scripture  his  specialty,  says  that  he  once  read 
through  on  three  successive  days,  each  at  a 
single  sitting,  an  oration  of  Demosthenes,  one 
of  Burke,  and  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  and 
he  had  the  feeling  at  the  time  that  neither  of 
the  other  two  rose  to  the  oratorical  level  of  the 
speeches  of  Moses. 

According  to  Josephus,  Moses  was  also  a 
brilliant  and  victorious  soldier,  and,  on  the 
occasion  of  an  Ethiopian  invasion,  took  com- 
mand of  the  Egyptian  army,  repulsed  the  in- 
vaders from  the  very  gates  of  Memphis,  drove 
them  back  into  their  own  country,  and  cap- 
tured their  capital.  His  pre-eminence  as  states- 
man, legislator  and  organizer  is  seen  in  the 
fact  that  to  him  are  traced  back  nearly  all  the 
formative  ideas  and  institutions  of  the  most 
influential  people  that  ever  lived.  In  the 
wealth  of  his  endowments,  in  the  grandeur  of 
his  character,  and  in  the  massiveness  of  his 
work  he  is  a colossal  figure. 

But  when  that  towering  personality  passed 
away,  would  not  the  work  he  had  done  fall  to 
the  ground?  His  work  would  certainly  have 
been  incomplete  had  he  not  made  provision  for 
the  perpetuation  of  it  after  his  death,  and  in 
nothing  does  the  greatness  of  the  man  appear 
more  clearly  than  in  the  measures  which  he 
adopted  for  this  purpose. 


4 


The  Essentials  of  His  System 

In  the  book  of  Deuteronomy  we  have  the 
closing  addresses  of  the  aged  leader  to  his 
people,  and  in  the  paragraph  before  us  (Deut. 
6:4-9),  we  find  the  three  essentials  of  his  sys- 
tem, viz.,  a Theology,  a Religion,  and  a 
Pedagogy. 

A Theology 

“Hear,  O Israel : the  Lord  our  God  is  one 
Lord.”  No  other  portion  of  the  Scriptures 
has  had  so  strong  an  influence  on  the  character 
and  career  of  the  Hebrew  race  as  this.  It  is 
the  Holy  of  holies  of  their  Bible — ^the  central 
article  of  their  faith — the  keystone  of  their 
creed.  It  is  repeated  morning  and  evening  in 
the  daily  ritual  in  every  land  where  there  is  a 
Hebrew  synagogue  or  a Hebrew  home.  It  is 
bound  upon  millions  of  arms  and  foreheads. 
It  is  nailed  upon  millions  of  door-posts.  In 
every  way  it  has  been  emphasized  to  the  eye 
as  well  as  to  the  ear.  In  the  original  text  the 
final  lettersl  of  the  first  and  last  words  of  the 
verse  are  majuscula,  i.  e.,  printed  much  larger 
than  the  ordinary  size,  so  that,  as  soon  as  the 
book  is  opened,  this  verse  leaps  from  the  page 
as  it  were  and  seizes  the  attention  of  the 
reader.  These  two  letters  form  together  a 
word  meaning  “witness,”  the  utterance  of  this 
verse  being  accounted  by  the  Jews  a witness 
for  the  faith. 

Nor  are  the  Jews  alone  in  stressing  this  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  unity.  The  Mohammedans 
give  it  an  equally  conspicuous  place  in  their 
creed.  Five  times  every  day  the  muezzin 
climbs  to  the  minaret  and  calls  the  faithful  to 
prayer  with  the  words : “There  is  no  god  but 
God.”  The  importance  attached  by  Christians 


6 


to  the  doctrine  of  the  exclusive  deity  of  Je- 
hovah is  too  well  known  to  require  further 
mention.  But  in  the  time  of  Moses  there  was 
need  of  special  emphasis  on  the  unity  of  God. 
He  and  his  people  had  just  come  out  of  a land 
which  was  the  very  hot-bed  of  polytheism — 
where,  as  Herodotus  said,  it  was  easier  to  find 
a god  than  a man — a land  where  the  people 
had  deified  the  sun  and  worshiped  that,  where 
they  had  deified  the  Nile  and  worshiped  that, 
where  they  had  deified  bulls  and  rams  and  cats 
and  worshiped  them.  Over  against  this  riot 
of  polytheism,  Moses  taught  that  God  is  one, 
supreme,  almighty  creator  and  Lord  of  all, 
loving  and  gracious — “our  God.”  And  it  is 
impossible  to  overestimate  the  world’s  debt 
, to  him  for  doing  it.  For,  explain  it  how  you 
will,  polytheism  degrades  and  monotheism 
exalts.  The  product  of  the  one  dies,  the 
product  of  the  other  endures.  The  religion  of 
Egypt  has  perished,  the  religion  of  Israel 
abides.  And  the  explanation  is  not  far  to  seek: 
For  belief  in  one  God,  righteous  and  almighty, 
is  the  indispensable  condition  of  a calm, 
courageous  conservative  mind  and  a rational 
view  of  human  affairs.  It  steadies,  strengthens 
and  lifts  the  whole  character  and  life  of  the 
individual  and  the  community  to  know  that 
this  universe  is  the  thought  of  one  mind,  that 
it  is  under  the  control  of  one  hand,  and  that 
in  all  its  parts  it  moves  to  the  accomplishment 
of  one  great  end.  To  anyone,  therefore,  who 
may  suppose  that  this  is  all  academic  and  far 
removed  from  the  practical  interests  of  our 
land  and  time  we  would  say  that  a sound 
theology  is  one  of  the  most  practical  of  things 
because  it  affects  directly  the  temper  of  the 


6 


mind,  the  steadiness  of  the  character,  and  the 
quality  of  the  work. 

A Religion 

Further,  Moses  not  only  gave  a Theology, 
but  a Religion.  He  not  only  taught  what  we 
are  to  believe  concerning  God,  but  what  duty 
God  requires  of  us : “Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all 
thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might.”  This,  as 
you  will  remember,  is  the  passage  cited  by  our 
Lord  as  the  first  and  great  commandment  of 
the  law.  And  it  is  a commandment  which  is 
“peculiar  to  revealed  religion.  That  is  only  to 
say,  in  other  words,  that  it  presupposes  re- 
demption. We  could  not  imagine  such  a pre- 
cept in  the  religion  of  Greece  or  of  Rome,  and, 
of  course,  we  do  not  find  it  there.”  The  gods 
of  Greece  and  Rome  were  largely  apotheoses 
of  human  prowess  or  human  vice,  and  it  was 
impossible  for  any  one  to  love  them  in  any 
conceivable  sense  of  the  word.  Could  you 
have  asked  one  of  the  ancient  Romans,  “Do 
you  love  Jupiter?”  he  would  have  answered, 
“I  fear  Jupiter,  but  I cannot  love  an  unprin- 
cipled omnipotence  of  selfishness  and  lust.” 
And  so  of  all  the  deities  of  their  pantheon. 
“Neither  the  place  they  hold  in  the  universe, 
nor  their  characters  and  relations  to  each 
other,  nor  their  attitude  to  men,  inspire  any 
such  emotion.”  It  is  altogether  different  with 
the  God  of  Israel.  Of  Him  Moses  says,  “Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God.” 

“It  is  often  said  that  love  cannot  be  com- 
manded, but  that  has  only  a limited  truth. 
Granted  certain  relations  between  persons,  and 
love  is  demanded  by  the  very  nature  of  the 
case ; if  it  is  wanting,  its  absence  is  the  gravest 


7 


of  moral  faults,  and  brings  innumerable  others 
in  its  train;  till  it  comes,  literally  nothing  can 
be  right.” 

Thus  closely  related  then  are  Theology  and 
Religion:  God  revealed  to  us  as  one  and  su- 
preme, holy  and  loving — that  is  Theology ; our 
love  responding  to  God’s — the  total  self-surren- 
der of  man’s  being  to  his  Maker — that  is  Re- 
ligion. 

A Pedagogy 

But  a third  point  remains.  By  what  means 
can  these  two  indispensable  things — Theology 
and  Religion — be  preserved  from  generation  to 
generation?  How  can  we  secure  the  preserva- 
tion among  men  of  this  true  knowledge  of  God 
and  this  genuine  devotion  to  His  service  ? It  is 
his  answer  to  this  question  which  I say  puts 
the  cap-stone  on  the  proof  of  Moses’  great- 
ness; for  he  teaches  that  the  only  effective 
method  of  conserving  and  perpetuating  true 
knowledge  of  God  and  living  obedience  to  His 
will  is  the  training  of  the  children  in  religion, 
that  the  responsibility  of  this  training  rests 
chiefly  on  the  parent,  and  that  the  home  is  the 
mainstay  of  religion.  Hear  him : “These 
words  which  I command  thee  this  day  shall 
be  in  thine  heart : and  thou  shalt  teach  them 
diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk 
of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and 
when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou 
liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up.  And 
thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a sign  upon  thine 
hand,  and  they  shall  be  as  frontlets  between 
thine  eyes.  And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon 
the  posts  of  thy  house,  and  on  thy  gates.” 

The  whole  matter  and  form  of  this  injunc- 
tion assume  that  religion  is  the  paramount 


8 


concern  of  human  life.  Observe:  “These 
words  shall  be  in  thine  heart” — not  merely 
memorized,  but  understood  and  loved — only 
he  can  effectually  teach  God’s  commands  to 
others  who  himself  obeys  them  from  the  heart 
— “Children  like  teachers  who  talk  out  of  their 
hearts.”  “And  thou  shalt  teach  them  dili- 
gently”— the  Hebrew  says  sharpen  them — 
“unto  thy  children” — make  the  truth  pointed — 
cause  it  to  penetrate  into  their  minds.  “And 
thou  shalt  talk  of  them”  at  home  and  by  the 
way,  in  the  evening  and  in  the  morning,  “with 
all  the  familiar  ease  of  conversation”;  no 
anxiety  need  ever  be  felt  as  to  the  future  of 
children  who  come  from  homes  where  the 
Word  of  God  is  talked  of  naturally,  easily, 
affectionately.  “And  thou  shalt  bind  them  for 
a sign  upon  thy  hand,  and  they  shall  be  for 
frontlets  between  thine  eyes.”  The  Jews,  as  all 
know,  have  interpreted  this  injunction  literally 
and  have  based  upon  it  the  custom  of  wearing 
phylacteries  at  prayers.  A piece  of  parchment 
containing  this  passage  (Deut.  6:4-9)  and 
three  other  passages  in  which  the  same  com- 
mand is  given  (Ex.  13:1-10,  11-16;  and  Deut. 
11:13-21),  is  sewed  up  in  a small  cubical 
leather  box,  with  thongs  attached,  by  means 
of  which  this  box  is  bound  upon  the  arm  or 
the  forehead.  But  the  language  is  figurative, 
and  the  real  meaning  of  the  command  is  that, 
as  the  hands  are  the  instruments  of  action  and 
the  eyes  the  organs  of  direction  and  the  fore- 
head the  chamber  of  thought  and  purpose, 
God's  law  should  direct  all  our  work  and  hal- 
low all  our  thought — every  part  of  the  life 
should  be  ruled  by  it — it  should  be  as  con- 
stantly present  to  view  as  if  bound  upon  the. 


9 


person.  “And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the 
posts  of  thy  house  and  upon  thy  gates.”  This 
also  the  Jews  have  interpreted  literally — whence 
the  Mesuzah,  that  is  the  square  piece  of  parch- 
ment inscribed  with  Deut.  6 '4-9  and  9:13-21, 
which,  rolled  up  and  enclosed  in  a small  cyl- 
inder of  wood  or  metal,  is  nailed  to  the  right- 
hand  post  of  every  door  in  a Jewish  house. 
On  the  outside  of  the  parchment  the  word 
Shaddai  (Almighty)  is  written,  and  a portion 
of  the  cylinder  is  cut  out  so  that  this  word  may 
be  plainly’seen.  The  pious  Jew,  when  passing 
in  or  out,  touches  the  divine  name,  kisses  his 
finger,  and  says  in  Hebrew,  Psalm  121 :8 : 
“The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  going  out  and 
thy  coming  in  from  this  time  forth,  and  even 
forevermore.”  But  here,  too,  the  language 
is  figurative  and  the  real  meaning  is  that 
God’s  law  is  to  rule  the  whole  house — that  it  is 
to  be  kept  in  view  in  all  goings  forth  to  toil 
and  in  all  returnings  to  rest. 

God’s  Ideal  of  Home  Training  in  Religion 

I have  ventured  to  give  this  unusual  mass 
of  exegetical  details  in  order  to  show  not  only 
how  every  word  of  this  Mosaic  scheme  of  peda- 
gogy emphasizes  the  transcendent  importance 
of  religion,  but  also  how  every  detail  of  this 
divinely  appointed  system  of  home  training  ac- 
centuates the  responsibility  of  parents.  The 
Word  of  God  is  to  be  in  the  heart,  it  is  to  be 
taught  diligently  to  the  children,  it  is  to  be  har- 
pooned into  their  minds,  it  is  to  be  the  subject 
of  talk  as  a part  of  our  life,  we  are  to  speak  of 
it  as  naturally  as  we  breathe  or  eat;  it  is  to 
dominate  the  whole  man — head,  eyes,  hands, 
to  regulate  the  whole  life — thoughts,  purposes, 


10 


actions : it  is  to  rule  the  whole  house — to 
hallow  the  home  in  all  its  phases  of  activity 
or  rest,  all  its  goings  out  and  comings  in. 
That  is  God’s  ideal  of  home  training  in  re- 
ligion. If  it  is  ever  to  be  realized,  it  must  be 
realized  through  the  faithfulness  of  parents. 

Heredity  and  Environment 

The  character  of  a child  is  chiefly  the 
product  of  two  forces,  heredity  and  environ- 
ment, and  to  both  of  these  forces  parents  are 
more  vitally  related  than  any  other  human 
beings.  Over  the  first  they  have  compara- 
tively little  control — the  child  himself  has  none 
whatever.  As  Dr.  Stalker  says:  “There  is  in 
human  life  a mysterious  element  of  necessity. 
Everyone  is  born  into  a particular  family 
which  has  a history  and  a character  of  its 
own,  formed  before  he  arrives.  He  has  no 
choice  in  the  matter;  yet  this  affects  all  his 
subsequent  life.  He  may  be  born  where  it  is 
an  honor  to  be  born,  or,  on  the  contrary, 
where  it  is  a disgrace.  He  may  be  heir  to  in- 
spiring memories  and  refined  habits,  or  he  may 
have  to  take  up  an  hereditary  burden  of  physi- 
cal or  moral  disease.  A man  has  no  choice  of 
his  mother  or  father,  his  brothers  or  sisters, 
his  uncles  or  his  cousins,  yet,  on  these  ties 
which  he  has  no  power  to  unlock,  may  depend 
three-fourths  of  his  happiness.”  With  what  a 
solemn  sense  of  responsibility  then  should  a 
man  and  a woman  enter  into  that  relation  from 
which  a new  life  is  to  spring!  How  fervently 
they  should  pray  that  they  may  inject  no  physi- 
cal or  moral  poison  into  the  stream  of  their 
child’s  descent,  but,  on  the  contrary,  add  some- 
thing to  his  splendid  inheritance  of  health  and 
virtue!  And  how  earnestly  they  should  strive 


11 


to  foster  the  good  and  repress  the  evil  which 
belong  by  birth  to  the  child  in  whose  veins 
their  own  blood  flows ! God  declares  in  Ma- 
lachi  that  His  purpose  in  instituting  the  family 
relationship  was  “that  He  might  seek  a godly 
seed” — the  object  of  the  marriage  relation  is 
to  bring  children  into  the  world  and  to  give 
them  a godly  rearing.  How  infinitely  removed 
from  the  divine  idea  are  the  flippant  concep- 
tion of  marriage  and  the  baneful  evasion  of 
parental  responsibility  which  have  become  so 
common  in  our  own  day!  Little  wonder  that 
our  Lord  made  this  institution  the  one  excep- 
tion to  His  rule  of  announcing  only  general 
principles  concerning  human  relationship — lit- 
tle wonder  that  He  legislated  specifically  and 
directly  in  regard  to  marriage  only.  Little 
wonder  that  the  Bible  makes  the  family  rather 
than  the  individual  the  unit  of  the  Church. 
There  is  a heritage  of  piety;  “I  thank  God, 
whom  I serve  from  my  forefathers  with  pure 
conscience,”  says  Paul.  Grace  does  not  run 
in  the  blood,  indeed,  yet  a godly  ancestry  lays 
the  lines  of  thought  and  feeling  and  tendency 
along  which  Christian  character  is  built  up. 
And  God  has  promised  that,  if  parents  are 
faithful  and  will  in  their  training  take  due 
account  of  what  each  child  is  by  heredity,  that 
training  will  keep  him  in  the  right  path 
(Prov.  22:6).  Train  up  a child  according  to 
his  way— -with  due  regard  to  his  connatal  tem- 
perament and  talents — and  when  he  is  old,  he 
will  not  depart  from  it. 

The  Atmosphere  of  the  Home 

While  parents  have  little  control  over  hered- 
ity, they  have  immense  control  over  environ- 
ment, the  other  main  force  in  the  making  of 


12 


our  children ; and  when  it  is  asked  how  par- 
ents can  meet  the  tremendous  responsibility 
resting  upon  them — how  they  can  efifectually 
teach  the  character-making  and  soul-saving 
Word  of  God  to  their  children,  as  Moses  here 
enjoins — the  answer  is,  first,  by  the  creation 
of  a right  environment,  a religious  atmosphere 
in  the  home.  Modern  conditions  have  made 
this  far  more  difficult  to  do  than  it  used  to  be. 
When  apartment  houses  are  taking  the  place 
of  homes,  when  the  feverish  rush  of  business 
prevents  anything  like  a leisurely  breakfast, 
and  is  still  more  fatal  to  anything  like  family 
worship,  when  the  two  great  ends  of  life 
seem  to  be  money  and  pleasure,  virhen  husbands 
and  wives  are  never  so  happy  as  when  at  the 
club,  the  bridge  party  or  the  theater,  and 
never  so  bored  as  when  forced  to  stay  at 
home — the  difficulty  of  creating  a wholesome, 
normal  atmosphere  for  children  to  grow  up 
in  is  obviously  very  much  increased.  Yet  the 
creation  of  such  an  atmosphere  is  an  absolute 
necessity.  Without  it  Christianity,  cannot  win 
out.  The  Christian  home  is  the  hope  of  the 
world. 

The  atmosphere  which  seems  to  be  nothing 
is  in  fact  the  most  subtle,  all-pervasive  and 
powerful  of  all  influences  affecting  the  physical 
health.  In  like  manner  the  moral  atmosphere 
of  the  home  goes  farther  than  any  other  force 
to  determine  the  character  and  destiny  of  the 
children.  And  this  atmosphere  is  an  exhala- 
tion from  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the  parents — 
the  inevitable  product  of  their  character  and 
example — whether  it  be  the  miasma  of  insin- 
cerity, and  worldliness,  and  money-worship  on 
the  one  hand,  or,  on  the  other,  the  sweet,  pure. 


13 


sanctifying  air  of  a reverent  and  happy  faith 
in  God.  The  apostle  speaks  of  “the  church  in 
thy  house”  — the  church  — Kuriakon  — “that 
which  is  the  Lord’s” — in  thy  house. 

A Personal  Question 

How  about  your  house  ? Have  you  in  it  that 
which  is  the  Lord’s?  And  is  that  the  domi- 
nant influence  there?  Happy  the  children  of 
such  a house!  Well  has  it  been  said  that 
“God  has  no  kinder  gift  to  us  than  a hal- 
lowed home,  the  memory  of  lessons  from  the 
lips  of  father  and  mother,  the  early  impres- 
sions of  virtue  and  wisdom,  the  sacred  streams 
which  rise  from  that  fountain  head,  and  that 
alone,  and  run  freshening  and  singing  and 
broadening  all  through  our  lives.  * * * Not 
without  reason  has  a great  cardinal  of  the 
Romish  Church  said  that  if  he  may  have  the 
children  up  to  the  age  of  five,  he  will  not  mind 
in  whose  hand  they  may  be  afterwards;  for  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  per- 
manent effects  of  those  first  tendencies  im- 
pressed upon  the  soul  before  the  intellect  is 
developed.  * * * Things  which  we  learn  we 
can  more  or  less  unlearn,  but  things  which  are 
blended  with  the  elements  of  our  composition, 
made  parts  of  us  before  we  are  conscious  of 
our  own  personality,  defy  the  hand  of  time 
and  the  power  of  conscious  effort  to  eradicate 
them.  * * * Let  a child  draw  his  first  breath 
in  a house  which  is  a sanctuary;  let  him  come 
to  know  by  his  quick  childish  perceptions  that 
there  is  in  his  home  a ladder  set  up  from  earth 
to  heaven,  and  that  the  angels  of  God  go  up 
and  down  on  it;  let  him  feel  the  Divine  at- 
mosphere in  his  face,  the  air  all  suffused  with 
heavenly  light,  the  sweetness  and  the  calm 


14 


which  prevail  in  a place  where  a constant  com- 
munion is  maintained — and  in  after  years  he 
will  be  aware  of  voices  which  call,  and  hands 
which  reach  out  to  him  from  his  childhood, 
connecting  him  with  heaven,  and  even  the  most 
convincing  negations  of  unbelief  will  be  power- 
less to  shake  the  faith  which  is  deep  as  the 
springs  of  his  life.” 

The  things  that  a child  absorbs  from  the 
home  atmosphere  about  him  in  those  early 
years  of  “delicate  susceptibility,  that  season 
when  the  surface  of  life  is  porous  to  the 
Highest,”  are  the  things  that  abide  with  him 
and  make  him  what  he  is  to  be. 

The  Father 

In  the  making  of  that  atmosphere  the  father 
is  a large  factor.  To  a little  child  his  father 
is  the  greatest  man  in  the  world,  the  fountain 
of  all  wisdom,  the  source  of  all  authority,  the 
wielder  of  all  power — to  the  child  he  stands  in 
the  place  of  God.  What  an  opportunity  and 
responsibility  are  his!  Yet,  how  many  fathers 
neglect  their  privilege  and  shirk  their  duty  and 
throw  the  whole  burden  on  the  mother!  An 
eminent  business  man  of  New  York  recently 
said  that  if  he  had  his  life  to  live  over  again, 
he  would  perhaps  make  less  money,  but  he 
would  spend  more  time  at  home  with  his  sons, 
so  that  the  relations  between  them  might  be 
more  intimate  and  that  he  might  teach  them, 
as  none  others  can,  the  great  issues  of  char- 
acter. 

The  Mother 

But  important  as  is  the  father’s  contribution 
to  the  atmosphere  of  the  home,  the  mother’s 
contribution  is  greater  still.  It  is  not  merely 


15 


an  alliterative  epigram  when  we  say,  “the  hand 
that  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world.”  It  is  a 
fact.  The  development  of  the  affections  in 
children  precedes  that  of  the  intellect.  The 
mother  governs  through  the  affections,  and  as 
she  alone  is  brought  into  the  closest  relations 
with  the  children  during  the  formative  period 
of  their  lives,  they  learn  to  love  her  with  a 
far  different  feeling  from  that  which  is  in- 
spired by  the  father.  His  is  largely  the  rule 
of  authority  or  force.  Hers  is  the  rule  of  love, 
and  hers  is  infinitely  stronger  and  more  abid- 
ing. Aye  more  abiding,  for  it  lasts  and  lasts 
and  lasts  long  after  her  gentle  spirit  has  passed 
into  the  better  land. 

Posthumous  Influence 

Astronomers  tell  us  that  the  light  of  a star 
lingers  on  the  earth  for  thousands  of  years 
after  the  star  itself  has  left  its  place  in  the 
firmament.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  certain 
that  the  influence  of  these  blessed  luminaries 
of  the  home  abides  with  their  children  and 
their  children’s  children  long  after  they  them- 
selves have  gone  hence. 

Some  years  ago  there  appeared  from  the 
press  a volume  of  remarkable  sketches  of 
Scottish  peasant  life,  under  the  sentimental 
title  of  “Beside  the  Bonnie  Brier  Bush.”  The 
teaching  of  some  of  these  sketches  cannot  be 
altogether  commended,  but  that  they  are  writ- 
ten with  singular  freshness  and  power  was 
conceded  on  every  hand.  Opinions  differed  as 
to  the  comparative  merits  of  the  several 
sketches,  but  from  the  moment  I laid  the  book 
down  after  reading  it  to  the  end,  my  own  mind 
was  made  up.  I awarded  the  palm  without 
hesitation  to  the  chapter  entitled  “His  Mother’s 


16 


Sermon.”  You  will  recall  the  story — how  the 
young  minister  came  to  Drumtochty  fresh 
from  the  Theological  Seminary,  green  and 
conceited,  but  with  a heart  at  bottom  sound 
and  true — how  he  supposed  that  a man  who 
had  taken  the  McWhammel  prize  in  the  Semi- 
nary should  on  his  first  appearance  in  this 
remote  parish  give  the  people  some  instruc- 
tion as  to  the  present  drift  of  liberal  theo- 
logical thought — how  he  accordingly  prepared 
an  elaborate  essay  with  learned  references  to 
“Semitic  Environment”  and  the  like — and  how 
his  godly  maiden  aunt  became  troubled  when 
she  discovered  what  kind  of  fare  he  was  pre- 
paring to  give  his  people  on  his  first  appear- 
ance in  their  pulpit.  With  a woman’s  tact  she 
managed  to  remind  him  of  a scene  some  years 
before,  when  he  had  kneeled  at  the  bedside  of 
his  dying  mother,  who  reached  out  a trembling 
and  emaciated  hand  and  laid  it  on  his  head  and 
expressed  the  hope  that  he  would  some  day 
become  a minister,  and  told  him  that  if  he  did, 
she  would  be  there  on  the  day  he  preached  his 
first  sermon — “And,  oh  laddie,  speak  a gude 
word  for  Jesus  Christ.” 

When  the  young  minister  was  reminded  of 
that  scene,  his  face  went  white  and  he  arose 
and  withdrew  to  his  study  and  took  the  elab- 
orate discourse  on  which  he  had  expended  so 
much  toil  and  put  it  into  the  glowing  grate  and 
saw  it  disappear  in  flame  and  smoke,  recogniz- 
ing on  a charred  fragment  the  mocking  words, 
“Semitic  Environment,”  and^then  set  himself 
to  prepare  his  mind  and  heart  to  “speak  a 
gude  word  for  Jesus  Christ.”  On  Sunday 
morning,  when  he  rose  in  the  pulpit,  he  was 
so  much  agitated  that  he  omitted  two  petitions 


17 


from  the  Lord’s  Prayer,  but  the  people  thought 
none  the  worse  of  him  for  that;  and  when  he 
began  to  deliver  his  message,  within  five  min- 
utes the  people  had  lost  sight  of  the  man  in 
the  pulpit  and  saw  only  the  holy  and  loving 
face  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth  and  His  pierced 
hands  outstretched  over  them  in  benediction. 
As  the  preacher  proceeded,  the  women  were 
weeping  softly  here  and  there,  and  the  rugged 
faces  of  those  Scottish  peasant  men  were 
softened  as  when  the  evening  light  falls  on  the 
granite  cliff.  When  the  service  was  over,  and 
some  one  asked  Donald  Menzies,  the  mystic, 
what  he  thought  of  the  new  preacher — the 
preacher’s  name  was  John  Carmichael — he 
would  only  answer,  “There  was  a man  sent 
from  God  whose  name  was  John.”  And  when 
John  Carmichael  got  back  to  the  manse  and 
was  expressing  wistful  regrets  that  his  sainted 
mother  could  not  have  been  there  to  hear  his 
first  sermon,  his  loving  aunt  threw  her  arms 
around  his  neck  and  kissed  him  and  said, 
“Never  mind,  laddie,  yon  was  your  mother’s 
sermon,  and  she  heard  every  word  of  it.” 

I am  quoting  from  memory,  after  the  lapse 
of  years,  not  being  able  just  now  to  lay  my 
hand  on  the  volume,  and  I have  probably  not 
done  the  story  justice,  but  even  so  it  will  indi- 
cate the  estimate  formed  by  one  of  the  most 
gifted  of  contemporary  authors  of  the  posthu- 
mous influence  of  a Christian  mother. 

Dr.  Cuyler  says  that  when  he  was  in  the 
Seminary,  a visiting  minister,  addressing  the 
students,  said : “All  you  men  that  had  praying 
mothers,  stand  up,”  and  in  a moment  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  on 
their  feet,  and  there  they  stood,  living  wit- 


18 


nesses  of  the  power  of  a mother’s  example 
and  a mother’s  prayers. 

The  real  reason  for  the  alarming  decrease  in 
the  number  of  candidates  for  the  ministry  dur- 
ing the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  is  the  decline 
of  family  religion — the  failure  of  fathers  and 
mothers  to  throw  around  their  sons  the  spir- 
itual atmosphere  most  favorable  to  the  devel- 
opment of  true  ministers  of  God. 

Specific  Instruction 

So  much  for  the  atmosphere  of  the  home 
and  the  example  of  father  and  mother — the 
influences  by  which  the  ideals  are  fixed,  the 
character  set,  the  trend  of  the  life  determined, 
the  habit  of  virtue  formed,  and  the  love  of 
righteousness  rendered  instinctive,  so  that  even 
when  there  is  no  time  for  reflection,  the  child 
decides  for  the  right — and  when  the  perilous 
period  of  adolescence  is  reached  and  new  de- 
sires are  born  and  new  temptations  assail,  the 
truth  and  purity  inhaled  in  that  Christian  home 
still  hold  the  youth  to  virtue’s  path. 

But,  in  addition  to  this,  specific  instruction 
is  required,  definite  teaching  must  be  given. 
Fdr,  after  a while  “the  understanding  will 
begin  to  assert  itself ; the  desire  to  question,  to 
criticise,  to  prove,  will  awake.  And  then, 
unless  the  truths  of  the  heart  have  been  ap- 
plied to  the  conscience  in  such  a way  as  to 
satisfy  the  reason,  there  may  come  the  deso- 
late time  in  which,  while  the  habits  of  practical 
life  remain  pure,  and  the  unconscious  influence 
of  early  training  continues  to  be  effective,  the 
mind  is  shaken  by  doubt,  and  the  hope  of  the 
soul  is  shrouded  in  a murky  cloud.’’ 

Now,  how  is  this  definite  teaching,  which 
will  steady  the  mind  and  satisfy  the  intellect 


19 


of  the  man  as  well  as  the  heart  of  the  child, 
to  be  given? 

The  Pulpit 

The  pulpit  has  a duty  here.  Our  Church  is 
pre-eminently  a teaching  Church.  It  has  al- 
ways exalted  the  sermon  as  a part  of  public 
worship  because  it  recognizes  the  reasonable- 
ness of  faith  and  the  value  of  truth  clearly 
apprehended  and  firmly  grasped  for  the  per- 
manent control  of  the  life.  But  the  specific 
duty  of  the  pulpit  in  regard  to  the  matter 
before  us,  as  we  shall  presently  see  more 
fully,  is  to  stimulate  and  guide  and  help  the 
parents  in  the  teaching  of  religion  in  the  home. 

The  Sunday  School 

The  Sunday  school  also  has  a duty  here,  and 
we  should  be  blind  and  recreant  indeed  if  we 
did  not  give  it  our  constant  and  careful  over- 
sight and  our  constant  and  cordial  support. 
But  let  us  remember  that  the  Sunday  school 
was  designed  to  be  a supplement  to  home 
training,  and  not  a substitute  for  it.  As  no 
preacher  can  ever  take  the  father’s  place,  so 
no  Sunday  school  teacher  can  ever  take  the 
mother’s  place.  “The  natural  and  the  ap- 
pointed place  for  children  to  make  the  ac- 
quaintance of  God  is  their  own  home.  The 
most  powerful  and  persuasive  lips  for  declar- 
ing the  awful  sanctities  of  religion  are  the 
priestly  lips  of  the  ordained  parent.’’  T®  the 
parent  God  has  given  the  psychological  op- 
portunity when  revealed  truth  can  best  be 
taught  and  spiritual  guidance  can  best  be  given. 
Those  early  years  of  spiritual  receptiveness 
and  special  susceptibility  to  educating  efforts — 
that  long  minority  of  the  child  under  the 
father’s  roof — these  constitute  the  supreme  op- 


20 


portunity  which  God  has  given  to  the  parent 
and  to  the  parent  alone.  The  Sunday  school, 
valuable  as  it  is  in  a supplementary  way,  can- 
not do  the  work  of  the  home,  because,  as  has 
been  said,  it  does  not  get  the  child  early 
enough,  and  because  when  it  does  get  him,  it  is 
not  able  to  repeat  its  impressions  with  sufficient 
frequency. 

The  Decisive  Factor 

The  home,  then,  is  the  decisive  factor  in  the 
problem  of  religious  education.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  some  of  the  voluntary  move- 
ments which  are  so  characteristic  of  our  time 
have  recognized  this  and  are  endeavoring  to 
aid  the  Church  in  rousing  parents  to  a sense 
of  their  duty.  The  platform  of  one  of  these 
organizations  runs  thus: 

“For  upbuilding  individual  faith,  for  de- 
veloping the  home  as  an  ally  of  the  Church, 
and  for  strengthening  the  Church  in  the  midst 
of  world-wide  missionary  responsibilities  and 
activities,  the  World’s  Morning  Watch  urges 
a policy  of  systematic  religious  instruction  of 
the  young 

In  the  Home 

By  the  Parents 

Seven  Days  in  the  Week” 

Why  is  it  that  with  all  our  increase  of  ac- 
tivity in  Sunday  school  work  and  all  our 
improvements  in  Sunday  school  methods,  the 
children  know  so  much  less  of  the  Bible  than 
those  of  fifty  years  ago?  The  time  was  when 
nearly  every  child  in  a Presbyterian  home,  by 
the  memorizing  of  the  great  capital  passages 
of  Scripture,  made  them  an  everlasting  and 
priceless  possession:  The  Ten  Command- 


21 


ments;  the  1st  Psalm,  and  the  8th,  and  the 
19th,  and  the  23rd,  and  the  27th,  and  the  91st, 
and  the  103d,  and  the  121st;  the  53d  chapter 
of  Isaiah,  and  the  SSth ; the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount;  the  15th  of  Luke;  the  14th  of  John, 
the  13th  of  I.  Corinthians — the  time  was  when 
the  children  knew  these — and  knew  also  that 
marvelous  compendium  of  Biblical  doctrine, 
the  Shorter  Catechism,  to  which  even  John 
Morley  ascribes  the  intellectual  pre-eminence 
of  the  Scottish  peasantry  and  “about  which 
there  is  so  much  ignorant  ribaldry  abroad 
today.” 

Is  it  so  now?  Do  the  children  of  our  time 
know  them?  If  not,  what  is  the  reason  for 
the  deterioration?  Is  it  not  that  parents  have 
discarded  the  high  prerogative  of  the  teacher? 
Nor  is  that  all.  For,  as  Mr.  Jowett  has  said, 
“With  the  household  teacher  has  gone  the 
household  priest ! It  is  not  only  that  the  home 
is  no  longer  a school ; it  is  no  longer  a temple ! 
The  altar  is  overthrown !” 

Fathers  and  brethren,  I have  selected  this 
subject  for  your  opening  meditation  in  this 
great  Assembly  because,  of  all  the  subjects 
that  can  engage  your  attention  as  leaders  of  the 
Church,  this  is  the  most  important.  The  Chris- 
tian home  is  the  hope  of  the  world.  And  the 
Christian  home  in  our  land  is  threatened  as  it 
has  never  been  threatened  before.  In  tens 
of  thousands  of  nominally  Christian  homes 
the  parents  have  abdicated  the  seat  of  pro- 
phetic instruction  and  forsaken  the  altar  of 
priestly  intercession.  Can  we  not  as  ministers 
recall  them  to  a true  appreciation  of  their 
supreme  function?  Can  we  not  rouse  them 
to  a sense  of  their  duty?  And  shall  we  not 


22 


give  them  the  requisite  guidance  as  to  what 
to  teach  and  how  to  teach?  Shall  we  not 
make  this  a main  point  of  our  ministry? 

A keen  observer  of  our  modern  Church  ac- 
tivities speaks  of  “the  diffused  triviality  of 
many  of  our  meetings,”  the  spending  of  our 
strength  on  minor  purposes  which  might  be 
serving  a greater,  the  covering  of  the  whole 
field  with  a multiplicity  of  little,  shallow  mines 
which  only  scratch  the  surface,  instead  of  sink- 
ing a limited  number  of  deep  shafts  with  con- 
centrated strength  and  equipment  to  reach  the 
buried  ore;  and  he  adds,  “There  is  nothing 
which  would  so  revive  the  modern  Church  as 
to  diminish  the  oppressive  multitude  of  our 
meetings  and  to  concentrate  upon  more  radical 
aims  and  labor.  We  might  appear  to  be  doing 
very  much  less,  while,  in  reality,  we  should  be 
doing  infinitely  more.” 

These  are  wise  words,  and  the  most  funda- 
mental of  these  large  tasks  calling  for  the  con- 
centration of  our  energies  is  the  task  of  mak- 
ing the  Christian  home  once  more  both  a sanc- 
tuary and  a school.  Why  should  we  not  give 
the  whole  subject  of  home  training  a larger 
place  in  our  pulpit  work?  Why  should  it  not 
be  presented  systematically  in  the  regular  Sun- 
day services  from  time  to  time?  Why  should 
it  not  be  a frequently  recurring  subject  for 
study  and  prayer  in  the  mid-week  meetings? 
Why  should  we  not  hold  special  meetings  for 
mothers  and  special  meetings  for  fathers  in 
which  we  might  consider  in  detail  the  prin- 
ciples and  methods  of  teaching?  Why  should 
the  subject  not  have  the  place  of  honor  in  our 
summer  schools  for  Christian  workers?  Why 
should  we  not  use  every  legitimate  method 


23 


that  can  be  devised  to  revive  the  teaching  of 
religion  in  the  home? 

Is  any  task  more  imperative?  Is  any  work 
more  fruitful?  Let  us  remember  that  if  we 
take  care  of  the  home,  the  church  will  take 
care  of  itself,  that  the  measure  of  the  church’s 
power  of  self-propagation  is  the  spiritual  life 
of  the  homes  that  compose  it,  that  no  amount 
of  activities  at  the  ends  of  the  earth  can  com- 
pensate for  the  deadening  influence  of  neg- 
lected homes,  that  no  amount  of  diligence  and 
care  in  the  gathering  of  fruit  can  compensate 
for  the  impoverishing  neglect  of  the  roots  of 
the  tree.  A ministry  makes  its  largest  contri- 
bution to  a community  or  a country  or  the 
world  when  it  teaches  effectually  the  divine 
conception  of  a fatherhood  and  motherhood, 
and  when  it  vitalizes  and  deepens  the  sense  of 
parental  responsibility.  To  accomplish  this  in 
the  case  of  even  a single  home  “is  to  redeem 
any  ministry  from  the  commonplace  and  to 
open  out  perspectives  of  possibility  which 
stretch  beyond  our  dreams.” 

May  God  give  us  wisdom  and  grace  to  meet 
the  solemn  obligation  which  rests  upon  us  as 
pastors  of  the  parents,  as  guides  and  helpers 
of  those  who  are  the  God-appointed  teachers 
in  the  home! 


Used  by  permission  of  Presbyterian  Church, 
U.  S.,  Department  of  Christian  Education  and 
Ministerial  Relief,  Louisville,  Ky. 


24 


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doz.  10  cents ; per  100,  50  cents. 

The  following  cards  have  been  prepared  for  individual 
signature  of  consecration  and  life-purpose: 

One  for  Parents. 

One  for  High  School  Age. 

One  for  College  Students. 

Samples  of  these  cards  free  In  quantities,  at  foUowlng 
nominal  prices  to  prevent  waste,  20  cents  per  hundred. 

A packet  containing  a sample  of  aU  this  material  will  be 
sent  postpaid  for  25  cents. 

Write  for  descriptive  list  of  Life  Work  charts  on  art 
paper  24"x36".  Price  30  cents  each  or  four  for  $1.00  postpaid. 


Ko.  *71.  LW.  II.  50.  J»B  *0- 


